Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Aug.9 / Trend, D. Azizov.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada Aug.8, official media outlets of the republic report.
During the conversation Uzbek President expressed satisfaction with the current state and the level of Uzbek-Japanese relations in various spheres.
"The extent and nature of our present-day interaction has been advancing in the spirit of the 2002 Joint Statement on Friendship, Strategic Partnership and Cooperation, and conforms to the role played today by Japan in the economic and political development of the contemporary world", Islam Karimov stressed.
He stressed that today Japan is one of the oldest and time-tested partners of Uzbekistan. The amount of investments into the national economy exceeds $2.3 billion. An intergovernmental agreement "On liberalization, mutual protection and promotion of investments', which entered into force in 2009 has given new impetus to the growth of business activity of great Japanese capital in the Uzbek market. For example, Corporation Mitsubishi takes part in the modernization of some chemical industry enterprises of the country, the specialists of Uzavtoprom "together with representatives of the Japanese auto concern Itochu are establishing production of new brands of vehicles at the factory "SamAvto", Corporation Mitsui is active in the implementation of the free industrial economic zone and multi-modal logistics center "Navoi", as well as joint projects in the sphere of high-tech with Sumitomo Company.
The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a new agreement worth $300 million for the modernization of Tolimarjon thermal power station in the Kashkadarya region with the Uzbek Government.
"Central Asia + Japan" dialogue is underway within multilateral efforts for sustainable peace and stability in the region has dialogue.
Another round of consultations of the dialogue, focusing on the political, economic, cultural issues, as well as issues of humanitarian character, was held in these days in Tashkent between the member states' foreign ministers.
During the meeting at Oqsaroy, Katsuya Okada expressed his sincere gratitude to the head of our state for the warm welcome, and highly appraised Uzbekistan's thoroughly balanced and constructive foreign policy pursued consistently by the leadership of Uzbekistan and directed at ensuring regional security.
Diplomatic relations between Uzbekistan and Japan were established in 1992. In July 2002, during the Uzbek President's visit to Japan a joint declaration on friendship, strategic partnership and cooperation was signed between the countries.